Christian Clavier

Christian Clavier — Biography

Christian Clavier was born on 6 May 1952 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. He began his career in the 1970s with a café-théâtre troupe he co-founded alongside Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, Michel Blanc, Marie-Anne Chazel and Josiane Balasko, becoming nationally known through film adaptations of the group's stage comedies. He went on to form a long-running partnership with director Jean-Marie Poiré, co-writing and starring in a string of box-office hits including Les Visiteurs, frequently paired on screen with Jean Reno.

He cemented his popularity playing Asterix opposite Gérard Depardieu in two films released in 1999 and 2002, and in 2018 lent his voice to an animated adaptation of the same character. On television he took on dramatic parts, playing Napoleon Bonaparte and the miserly innkeeper Thénardier in an adaptation of Les Misérables. He was made a Knight of France's National Order of Merit in 1998 and a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2008. In 2012 he relocated to the United Kingdom amid a dispute over French tax policy, and in 2023 President Emmanuel Macron publicly praised his body of work. He is the brother of director Stéphane Clavier.